Indoor Grow Tip: 30% Better Yields by Plucking Leaves

“Those big, light-blocking leaves on my pot plants, should I pluck them off so the rest of the plant gets more light and air?"

Most growers think that removing one or two big leaves is okay, especially since the removal of the large ones allows other parts of the plant to produce bigger sticky buds. But then again, those big home-grown solar panels are gathering energy for the plant. Removing them is like cutting off a source of energy for growth.

Recently, while visiting one of the more skilled growers I have met in my travels, I asked the secret for getting consistent quality and big yields from top to bottom on very-tall indoor plants. I was told that plucking leaves were key. Turns out the answer has more to do with when rather than yes or no.

With OG Kush crops, after about four weeks into the bud cycle, the growers almost completely defoliated the big, beautiful leafy plants. Seeing the before and after, I was a little shocked (“what are these guys smoking?”): Big, healthy bushes stripped to sticks with just a few fan leaves, but with all of the budding sites intact.

Yet, when they showed me a section that had been treated this way and was now ready to harvest, it became clear that there was a method to what appears as madness.